Over 100 young people have been involved in co-designing a new app to improve wellbeing for First Nations young people called the AIMhi for Youth (AIMhi-Y) app. The app is a strengths-based, digital wellbeing tool that integrates education and brief intervention into a fun, interactive and gamified app. The app embeds guidance from elders, building connection with culture, country and language. 

View the AIMhi-Y app's privacy policy. 

Aim:

The aim of this study was to  assess feasibility, acceptability, user engagement and safety of the newly developed AIMhi-Y app.

Objectives: 

Objectives were to recruit First Nations young people aged 12-25 years to use the app, undertake wellbeing assessments pre- and post-app use and provide ratings and feedback on their subjective experiences of the app. 

Summary:

The study recruited 30 young people (average age 14 years; 46% female) to trial the app. The app and study participation were both rated highly and feedback suggested the young people found the app easy to use, culturally relevant and useful. Pre-post wellbeing measures (K10 and PHQ2) showed improvements over the four-week period. While the results are encouraging and demonstrate the relative safety of the app, the lack of control group limits the strength of these findings.  

Implications for policy and practice:  

This study provides encouraging results for the safety, feasibility and acceptability of this app as a complementary early intervention wellbeing treatment for First Nations young people. 

Chief Investigator:
Contact information:
Project dates:
  • 2020-2022

 

Funders:
  • Suicide Prevention Australia    
Collaborators:
  • Anglicare headspace NT
  • Stars Foundation
  • Clontarf Foundation
  • CAAPS Aboriginal Corporation
  • Povey, J., Sweet, M., Nagel, T., Lowell, A., Shand, F., Vigona, J., & Dingwall, K. M. (2022). Determining Priorities in the Aboriginal and Islander Mental Health Initiative for Youth App Second Phase Participatory Design Project: Qualitative Study and Narrative Literature Review. JMIR formative research, 6(2), e28342. doi:10.2196/28342
  • Povey, J., Sweet, M., Nagel, T., Mills, P. P. J. R., Stassi, C. P., Puruntatameri, A. M. A., . . . Dingwall, K. (2020). Drafting the Aboriginal and Islander Mental Health Initiative for Youth (AIMhi-Y) App: Results of a formative mixed methods study. Internet Interventions, 21, 100318. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2020.100318
  • Povey, J., Mills, P., Dingwall, K., Lowell, A., Singer, J., Rotumah, D., . . . Nagel, T. (2016). Acceptability of Mental Health Apps for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians: A Qualitative Study. J Med Internet Res, 18(3), e65. doi: 10.2196/jmir.5314